


crybaby rin (4 + 1)

by incensuous



Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, Sibling Bonding, warning: extreme sappiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 00:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13019604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incensuous/pseuds/incensuous
Summary: Four times Rin cries, and one time Gou does.





	crybaby rin (4 + 1)

**Author's Note:**

> rin cries a lot.  
> cross-posted from tumblr after a billion years

_i. graduation_

“Matsuoka Gou!”

A round of applause goes up at the sound of her name. When she looks out into the audience, she can practically feel Rin’s beaming smile from across the room. She can tell he doesn’t bother hiding it, not today, because he knows no one’s looking at him, the future gold medalist hopeful—the spotlight is on her.

As she walks back to her seat with her newly received diploma in hand, she’s excited and her head feels tingly—is this what being drunk would feel like? She talks animatedly to her friends and when the ceremony is about to finish up, all she can think about is how far Rin travelled—all for her.

. . .

Gou dashes towards her brother and their friends as fast as she can in the new shoes she’d worn today. “Onii-chan! Haruka-senpai! Makoto-senpai!” By the time she is there, Nagisa and Rei have also found their way to the group.

She finds herself jumping into her brother’s embrace and his arms easily catch her and hold her close.

“I’m so proud of you, Gou,” he announces, before briefly pecking her temple. Today, he refuses to hold back his praise for her. She’s earned it and it’s the least he can do after all she’s done for him. If anyone thought he was sappy, he didn’t care.

“I'm glad you could make it.” Gou presses her face into his shoulder, in her excitement. “Thank you for coming.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for anything,” Rin responds, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Even the Olympics?” she teases, her eyes glittering.

Rin grins down at his sister. “The Olympics happen every four years, but you only graduate from high school once, Gou.”

Nagisa cheers loudly, recklessly waving around the certificate he’d only just received. “We’re all here! We have to take a picture of everyone!”

Rei’s mother is happy to take a snapshot of the exuberant group. Nagisa, Rei, and Gou all stand in the front, proudly displaying their diplomas, while the other three make up the back.

Rin gently leans forward and places his chin to the side of Gou’s head. Makoto and Haru also wrap their arms around Nagisa and Rei’s shoulders, but it is Nagisa who points out how “cute” the Matsuoka siblings look.

“Gou,” Rin starts, but pauses when he feels his throat swell. “Tou-san would be really proud of you.”

And she beams up at her brother. “Thank you, onii-chan.” She leans up and Rin lowers his head so she can peck his cheek, and if she notices the tears brimming in his eyes, she doesn’t mention it.

* * *

_ii. moving out_

They finally reach Tokyo University, after a long eight-hour drive, and Gou bursts out of the car—half in anticipation, and half to stretch her restless legs.

“Rin! Gou!”

Somehow, Makoto and Haru have found their way amongst the throng of fresh-faced new college students to locate the Matsuokas. It likely had to do with their striking hair.

“Thanks for coming to help me, Makoto-senpai, Haruka-senpai,” Gou enthuses, brimming with excitement. “I’ll definitely make it up to you! Whatever dinner you want, it’s on me.”

“It’s a good thing Rin happened to be visiting home so he could also help you, Gou-chan,” Makoto notes, smiling.

And so, the four intrepid Iwatobi residents begin the laborious process of hauling all of Gou’s belongings into her new room.

Reminiscent of her managerial days at her high school, Gou authoritatively directs all three of the impressively-physiqued swimmers. It must’ve made quite an impression, because soon enough, plenty of girls (and some guys) had fixated their attention on her brother and her friends.

She is chagrined to already make such a commotion before she’d even attended her first day of classes, but she can’t blame the gawking audience; her brother’s deltoids are simply top-tier, while Haru and Makoto’s triceps and trapezoids are respectively peerless.

. . .

Once all the heavy-lifting is finished, they decide on eating hotpot and Haru and Makoto go to retrieve their car, leaving the two siblings to wait alone in Gou’s dorm.

She notices Rin has been unusually quiet during the process. 

Fearing the worst, Gou turns, only to find her brother looking around at the room with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Onii-chan?” she hedges. “What’s wrong?”

His crimson eyes slide over to her and Gou realizes Rin doesn’t look angry—just sad.

“You’re all grown up now,” he finally says. “You’re living on your own, now, away from Mom.” His lower lip trembles minutely.

She smiles a little and slips her small hand in his larger one. “You know,  _you’ve_  been living all the way in Australia, since you were twelve.”

“I had a foster family,” he excuses, sniffling a little.

“But you were still away from Mom,” Gou reasons. “And me.”

Rin looks down at his sister. “I missed you guys. A lot,” he confesses, finally.

“Us too,” she responds in a whisper. She pulls her brother down to sit on her bed and in shifting his tall frame, Rin accidentally knocks something off her desk.

He apologizes as he reaches down to pick it up. It’s some sort of book, and a few pieces of scrap paper had fallen out of it. When he peers closer, he realizes they’re newspaper clippings mentioning him. He picks it up and turns to her incredulously.

“I started it when you left. The first time,” she confides, with a sheepish smile. “I just wanted things to remind me of you.”

He hesitantly opens the weathered book, and finds in it: childhood pictures of the two of them and the family, letters he’d written when he was twelve and terribly homesick, postcards, even the picture of Tou-san he’d given her. 

It doesn’t strike him he’s crying until a tear wets one of the pages, and then he’s hastily wiping at his eyes. “S-sorry,” he stammers.

“It’s fine, onii-chan,” Gou comforts him. She continues holding his hand as he stares down at the small scrapbook she thought important enough to bring with her. “You know, you said I’m all grown up now. But I’ll always need my big brother around.”

He gives a small, watery grin. “Yeah, I know.”

* * *

_iii. wedding_

It’d taken many months of meticulous planning, mostly on Gou’s part. They’d hired a planner, but Gou was always good at logistics, especially from her experience as the Iwatobi swim club manager for three years.

She’d found the dress, the venue, decorations, entertainment, invitations; everything was all going according to plan. And then she’d asked him to be the one to give her away, in place of  _Tou-san._

“Of course I’ll do it, Gou,” he replies warmly, hoping she can hear his smile in his voice through the phone.

_“Good. You have to be here. Absolutely no excuses, even if you’re dead. Which you will be, if you don’t show up.”_

“I’ll be there, okay!” Rin rolls his eyes at her threats.

_“Okay. That’s a promise.”_

. . .

It’d taken a lot of pleading to ask his mentor to give him some extra time off for the wedding. But he could tell even his coach had a soft spot for the cute little sister who constantly bugged her Olympian brother.

“Alright, but you’re gonna have to work overtime when you get back. Laps all day.”

“You got it, coach.” Rin mentally dreaded the brutal torture that would be imposed on his body in the future, but it was worth it to see Gou on her big day.

“Rin?”

“Yeah?”

“Tell her congratulations.”

Rin paused, slightly surprised and mildly touched. “Will do. Thanks, coach.” 

. . .

This time, for once, Gou is too busy to pick him up at the terminal. It’s the only time she couldn’t make it, and it’s partly his fault because he’d chosen such a late flight. He’d barely make it to the rehearsal dinner in time.

However, Gou makes up for her absence at the airport by immediately embracing him as soon as he stepped through the doors, as if she’d had her brother-radar on and knew exactly when he would arrive.

“Onii-chan!” Her relief can be felt through her entire body.

He smirks into her hair.  “I promised, didn’t I?”

. . .

Nagisa jokes and bets Rin will probably cry during the ceremony.

Sousuke gives his slow, easy smile. “Is that even a question?”

“Hey!” Rin growls, vein throbbing at his temple and teeth bared. 

. . .

The procession is disappearing one by one through the double doors in front of his eyes. He wonders why his heart is hammering as if he was high on an adrenaline rush after a good race. Rin nervously runs a hand over his slicked back hair, trying to keep his hands occupied.

“Onii-chan?” Gou whispers, at his side, with her arm tucked through his bigger one. She’s decadently dressed, her full gown flaring behind her, veil draping down her back, and vermilion hair pulled neatly into intricate knots atop her head. She looks beautiful.

“What is it?”

“I’m just really happy you’re here. Thank you for coming.” His sister turns to him with a bright smile, her eyes glistening underneath her bridal make-up.

“You know, Tou-san is here too,” Rin replies in a low voice, feeling the regal music wash over him, waiting for their cue.

She beams and her radiance makes him avert his eyes, before they start to sting.

Then the last people in front of them are walking away, and next thing he knows, the blinding lights of the cathedral are hitting him and there are hundreds of eyes upon him. He is abruptly hyperaware of his sister’s arm through his, of her warmth radiating through his side.

He gracefully maneuvers around the skirt of her dress, yet his ears are ringing—or maybe that’s just the organ playing. He sees Sousuke at the end of the aisle, dressed up in a tuxedo, and all he can think about is how happy his best friend makes Gou. Rin always thought Gou being happy was most important.

He remembers when his baby sister was born. She was so little and precious; all he wanted to do was guard her and make her happy, and now she’s here.

His lower lip trembles before he can try to reel it in, then his throat swells and he can barely swallow anymore. Suddenly, he’s got fat tears rolling down his face, and Gou is next to him, hugging him tightly, completely throwing off the ceremony’s schedule by a good thirty seconds all for him. He sucks in a deep breath before he continues to make it down the aisle, with Gou clutching his arm tightly to her.

He kisses her forehead, then makes eye contact with the groom, attempting to seem stern and intimidating with tear tracks down his face.

Sousuke doesn’t seem fazed at his friend’s bout of emotion, and only bows his head gratefully. “Thank you,” he offers, as his gratitude for letting him wed the sister Rin had protected all his life.

And he wouldn’t stop now, just because she was married.

* * *

_iv. firstborn_

He slings his towel over his wet, broad shoulders as he clutches onto his phone in a vice grip. It is moments like these that makes Rin really feel the distance between him and his family. He’s across an ocean, when Gou utters the words that steal his breath away. All he wants to do is pick her up in his arms (gently) and hold her tight.

He fights back a hiccup as tears well up in his eyes and Gou listens peacefully on the other line.

_“You’re going to be an uncle, Onii-chan.”_

“I’ll be there,” he promises without thinking.

 _“Eh?”_ Gou is shocked.  _“You will?”_ He can hear the excitement bubble in her voice and any regret he might have had over such an impulsive decision is quickly whisked away. No way in hell is he going to miss his first niece or nephew’s birth.

It is bad enough he can’t physically be there to support her during her pregnancy. “Sousuke better take care of you,” he mutters, threateningly.  _For me._

He hears her familiar giggle resonate through the phone.  _“Of course. Ever since we found out, he hasn’t even let me cook.”_

“Is that really just because of the pregnancy?”

_“Onii-chan!”_

And Rin can just tell in her voice, Gou’s cheeks had puffed up, like when he’d teased her as kids and she’d been upset.

He marvels how his little baby sister was going to become a mother herself, in just a scant seven months.

 _“Okaa-san has been in a flurry, she’s so excited,_ ” Gou comments, then pauses.  _“Are you sure you want to come home then? That’s just the estimated date, but it could be later, or…”_

“Gou, I said I’m coming home,” he sternly declares.

Even though Gou is silent on her end for once, he can hear her glowing with happiness.

When they hang up, it takes him a while to wrench his gaze away from his cell, as if still in disbelief.

“Rin!” A familiar voice calls.

He whips his head around and his coach comes into view.

The tall Australian man raises an eyebrow at his protege’s face, only slightly surprised now, having known him for years. There is only one reason why Rin would have been crying on the phone.

“What did your little sister do now?”

Chagrined, Rin can only reply with, “I’m gonna be an uncle.”

His coach gives a broad grin and claps him on the back. “Congratulations, Rin!”

“Thanks,” the redhead musters a small smile, before hedging, “Say… in June…”

. . .

Rin had just gotten off the plane and turned on his cell phone when it started to vibrate nonstop.

_“Rin-chan!”_

“Nagisa, are you—?”

_“No time to talk, Rin-chan! Gou-kun’s in the hospital!”_

Crimson eyes widen immediately. 

_“Get your butt through the terminal, now!”_

Rin is too delirious to even register Nagisa’s frantic rudeness.

His tall frame and broad shoulders make it easy for him to cut through the crowd, to customs, and then bursting through the exit, immediately trying to spot his friends.

“Rin-chan!”

He turns his head as all four former members of the Iwatobi swim club wave at him, gesturing to their car parked out on the curb.

“Sousuke’s with her. He drove her a few hours ago, and now she’s in labor,” Rei supplies from the back seat, next to Makoto.

Makoto, always caring, is almost as anxious as Rin. Haru, ever composed, takes the wheel without a word, but the way he weaves through the streets indicates he is just as keen as the others to see Gou as quickly as possible. Rei seems to be steadfastly caught in his own theories and calculations how soon Gou's baby might come. Then, there is the bubbling Nagisa, who seems just as harried as he is elated.

It’s reassuring to Rin he isn’t the only one worrying.

. . .

He bursts through the doors, personnel utterly failing to stop the Olympian of a mother hen. Rin quickly zeroes in on Gou, who’d been screaming in agony, and Sousuke, perspiring next to her as she clutched his hand.

Knowing better than to exacerbate her emotions by panicking further, he simply stalks to her other side and clasps her other hand. He kisses her forehead and brushes away her fringe, clinging to her clammy skin.

“I’m here, Gou,” he murmurs.

“Onii-chan,” she whimpers, meeting his eyes with her own glossy orbs before groaning loudly again as she pushes harder per the doctor’s orders.

The other four boys walk in, worried for their dear friend, and the hospital faculty had clearly thrown up their hands in defeat.

Some of them look strangely at this girl, completely surrounded by no less than six resplendent athletes, clearly swimmers by their physique.

Her friends stare on in awe as Gou pushes with a herculean effort. The doctors predict hers will be a relatively quick labor and just over an hour later, there is a loud wail as the doctor cradles the newborn.

The petite girl heaves raggedly, her hands falling limp within the grip of the two most important men in her life.

“It’s a beautiful baby boy,” the doctor announces to her. Gou tiredly smiles and looks over to Sousuke, who presses a chaste kiss to her lips.

“I love you,” he murmurs, before fixing his gaze on their infant in the nurse's arms. It seems their baby has inherited the signature Matsuoka russet locks.

Then, she looks over to her brother, completely unsurprised at the large tear drops welling in his eyes.

He hiccups, overwhelmed with emotion, brushing his knuckles along her sweaty cheek, “My baby sis.”

* * *

_+1.  gold_

Gou can almost feel the water droplets from her brother’s powerful stroke as he slaps his hand on the wall, whipping his head to look at the screen and see the results. Rin’s reaction is delayed, as if he doesn’t believe it himself. And Gou’s reaction precedes him by a few seconds, because she had believed in it with all her heart—but also she didn’t care, she didn’t need to see the board to know if he’d won. All she cared about was that he’d come so far.

With one swift movement, he vaults himself out of the pool, and launches straight into her awaiting arms. He picks her up briefly in his exulting joy and buries his nose into her shoulder, while she curls her arms around him, kissing him on the cheek.

Gou doesn’t even register his towering build is still dripping wet and is soaking her nice outfit (at least not until later when she’s shivering in the cool air of the natatorium and Rin notices because he hauls her under the thick towels with him.) All she can focus on is her brother glowing, smiling like the day he’d won his first relay.

Long arms continue to ensconce her as the speakers announced the final results:  _Rin Matsuoka in first place…_

She hadn't realized she’s almost screaming, because she can barely hear herself over the din of the audience. She’s yelling right into his ear, “You did it, onii-chan!”

He is silent as he doesn’t relent on his hold, and she switches to stroking his back as she feels wetness on her shoulder that has nothing to do with the fact Rin had just emerged from a pool.

Her smile grows even wider. She presses her lips to his temple again and holds him until he’s calmed down. He eventually slowly disentangles himself from her, before swiping at his eyes. He quickly kisses her forehead, and then faces the crowd, waving up at the spectators.

Later, when the two of them are wrapped in a fluffy towel, mostly dried off, Gou just presses her face into his chest, as if to hide.

“Gou?”

She looks up at him with shining, wet eyes, mirroring his own, and beams, her voice crackling slightly. “I’m so happy for you. And so is Tou-san.”


End file.
